Advances in semiconductor manufacturing technologies, systems architecture, and assembly techniques, have enabled the development of physically compact and low-power data storage, signal processing, computational, and communication subsystems capable of significant sensing, information processing and communication tasks.
The capabilities provided by these advances have led to the incorporation of such circuits and subsystems in applications such as, but not limited to, remote sensing, data logging, and communication.
Additionally, the discovery and development of materials having thermoelectric properties provided means for delivering electric power without the use of chemical reactions such as those found in batteries. As is known, the thermoelectric effect, sometimes referred to as the Seebeck effect, can be used to convert temperature differences directly into electricity.
Directly combining a thermoelectric powered unit with advanced electronic systems would be advantageous for remote applications since the time between battery replacements would be extended or even eliminated, thus reducing the requirements for field service and maintenance.
Unfortunately, the physical configurations of conventional thermoelectric power generation devices combined with advanced electronics for sensing, storing, computing, and communicating data are not well suited for small form factor, integrated packages for easy field deployability.
What is needed is an integrated, small-footprint, thermoelectrically powered, platform for remote sensing and/or communication, operable in a wide variety of environmental conditions.